# @afpphoto on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DcvgYwCDPp3
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/69844703-afpphoto-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/fc04ff6501.jpg
- **Posted:** 2026-09-01T11:01:02.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** AFP Photo (@afpphoto) — https://gondola.cc/afpphoto

## Caption

Afghanistan's gold rush upends lives and landscapes⁣
⁣
In Afghanistan's northeastern Badakhshan province, dozens of excavators operate day and night to extract gold from the mountains where villagers and their livestock once roamed.⁣
Thousands of miners are deployed across the Shiwa area, about 50 kilometres (30 miles) northeast of the provincial capital Faizabad, extracting gold for investors nationwide.⁣
⁣
Some residents in the area have profited from the gold rush, only to regret it later, such as farmer Muhammad Amin.⁣
Since mining got underway, "the water of the river is not drinkable; you can't even wash your body with that water", he told AFP.⁣
With tears in his eyes, Amin said the grass along the riverbank "has all gone" and farming is no longer possible due to "the wind and dust".⁣
Now he can only feed up to 15 goats, compared with as many as 40 previously.⁣
Amin said he was paid half the $20,000 for which he agreed to lease his land to a mining firm that failed to fulfil a promise to restore his fields after the work stopped.⁣
⁣
The Taliban authorities have expanded the mining sector since returning to power five years ago, aiming to tap into Afghanistan's vast underground resources to boost state coffers.⁣
While mining has temporarily stopped in Amin's village, not far from his home, in Gulak-Dara valley, dozens of diggers were carving into the mountainside.⁣
With jobs scarce in Afghanistan, the area has drawn workers from across the country.⁣
⁣
📷 wakil.kohsar⁣
📷 omer_abrar1⁣
#AFPPhoto

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